Category Archives: Imperial Stout

This episode welcomes the original Cellarmaster and the ‘Yankee’ in Brit and Yankee, Lingo, back to the pub, and he’s lucky to be here when we have some special brews to taste and compare. 2nd Shift is a brewery out of St. Louis, MO., who our good friend Kevin from The Wine & Cheese Place in Ballwin, MO. introduced us to. We pop the tops of these 3 girls, and get Lingo acquainted with a new style.

Steve Crider is the brewmaster there, and produced a wonderful barrel-aged saison with brett, called Katy which is delicate brew that tastes like a wine. He has also used the same recipe but with 2 bretts, and christened the result Grace. Our final menage a trois of BA saisons is Annabelle, using a ‘funky’ brett and aging 8 months.

We compare these three ladies of Missouri and arbitrarily rate them to our preference. No matter, they are all outstanding examples of this style, and we long for them to wend their way over the border into Illinois. As you see from the pictures below, the cork in Grace was tough to remove!

So that Lingo ends up with a heavier style as he likes, we’ve managed to obtain a bottle of the original Abraxas from Perennial Artisan Ales, which none of us has actually had the pleasure of trying. We break open the bottle and find out that all they say is true about this great Imperial Stout that regularly makes the top Stout lists that frequent the internet.

As we missed a week for Thanksgiving, we are back with a bumper edition.

Heading into the dark winter days, we select 6 hearty stouts that we think are good selections for either go-to or treat beers from the dark side. Joining Mark and Phil is Chuck Fort, assistant brewer from Church Street. As all the beers are great in their own right, we won’t be rating them, but instead we select our top 2, based solely on personal preference. Chuck brings their Holy Cow! Milk Stout as our starter brew.

To break up the Stout session, we cleanse our palate with a short interview with Brandon Wright, head brewer at Plainfield’s Werk Force Brewing. He won a gold medal at FOBAB 2016 for his Beautifully Broken, in the Fruit Beer category, and we caught up with him to find out all about his win and the beer.

Here are the stouts we reviewed, plus the timings if you want to skip around:

Following GABF, Mark took a road trip out to the West, and visited Laramie Wyoming and Boise Idaho, and discovered that those cowboys have pretty good breweries and beers! He brings back samples from 4 breweries on this show, and we get a good sampling across the styles. Guest John Karwoski joins us as we record live from John’s Tavern in Winfield.

First stop in Laramie, is Altitude Brewing, or to give them their full title, Altitude Chophouse and Brewery. We have a crowler of their Imperial Stout, 7200′ Stout, clocking in at 7%. Three weeks old, Mark wasn’t sure it would stand up but boy, it sure did!

Next we head to Boise, for the first of three brewery stops. We sample the opposite end of the beer spectrum, an American lager called North Fork, from Payette Brewing. This one is a great lager, and probably sells pretty well as a transition craft beer, and a light 4.4%.

Next, the oldest brewery in Boise, we sample Highlands Hollow Brewhouse, and a growler of a mystery beer. Why mystery? Mark forgot what he ordered and the cap wasn’t marked! We think it is either the Fiegwild English pale ale, or the Thunder Monkey Best Bitter. Apologies to brewer Chris Compton, but we liked it a lot.

Finally, 2 cans of brewing goodness from the Sockeye Grill & Brewery, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Our first can is Hell-Diver Pale Ale, 5.5%. Lastly, a brown porter called Powerhouse, 6.0%, which proved to be very drinkable and John’s favorite.

We record a show over at John’s Tavern in Winfield, and we’re getting violent on this show with some Smack and Bruising! Noon Whistle has been producing their Smack series of beers and we have 2 of the barrel-aged varieties to review.

The first is Swanky Smack, a red sour aged in cabernet barrels and checking in at 4.8%. The other is Face Smack, a Berliner Weisse aged in cabernet barrels, and 4.0%. In between, we sandwich a rarity from The Bruery, Hottenroth Berliner Weisse (3.1%), something that is discontinued according to their website but we have it on draft at John’s. We recommend all three!